Rabenstein... or getting lost without a phone

Neuberg an der Murz Travel Blog

On this gloriously warm day, I set out to walk on a mountain. I saw that mountain the first time we drove into the village and I thought, "Hm, this looks like it does not want people climbing on it, steep as it is... haha, you haven't met me yet."So, up I went, on the truly idyllic little path through the forest. It was really warm and I sweated and panted, even though it wasn't extremely steep at all. Read: I don't normally do sports a lot. My cousin had to study, hence this solo trip. Besides, I love being in forests all alone. You see so much more, really.Well, I reached the top, via a "stair" built on the Rocks. I tell you, the view was stunning. After eating and drinking in peace... a seldom moment in this holiday, because my full palate was always envied by the poor dieters and they hated me during dinner, I tried to take a photograph of myself with the landscape.

The Murz

The Table wasn't high enough, so I did some acrobatic excercises and tried to smile. Ah well, me looking like a complete idiot, clinging to the rail, who do you think came up the path? The hiking-group of my hotel. And I especially avoided them. They, being caring, elderly people, all quizzed me about walking up alone. After a little chatting, we all walked down and seperated, because I decided to walk down another path to a place called "Lechnergraben" that I had discovered on my way up. All the nice people and their tourguide warned me of getting lost, the steepness and wild animals. Well, having grown up in the mountains and forests, I was more than confident. After a hundred metres the path ended in a heap of fallen-over trees and bushes.

Did I mention, I love forests?

(The signs of the catastrophic storm in June.) So I decided to just walk criss-cross till I found some sort of path again. Having climbed over a number of rocks, looking at flowers and mushrooms and crawling under tree trunks... in Austria the word for this sort of locomotion is "hirschen", (running around like a deer), I finally reached a path again and decided to walk back to Neuberg, because it was getting late and I wanted to meet Conny for a walk. So I wanted to call her, when I found my phone was gone! In wild panic, I decided to retrace my steps, but it suddenly looked all the same and I had no idea of the exact path I'd taken. I prayed Conny would call me, so I could hear it, but she didn't. I got so lost in looking for my own traces, that I really didn't know where I was anymore.

Half the way

So I thought rationally, and walked all the way back to the peak and down the path again... and guess what? At the very last piece before the path dissappeared, my phone lay comfortably on a bed of leaves. No wonder I didn't hear it fall. Calming down, I walked back to Neuberg and then we took a walk along the railway-tracks and the Murz. Well, at the hotel they had a good laugh and called me crazy, for roaming all alone and thought I had learned my lesson. Ahem, no, not really. Well, I learned I'll put my phone into a safer place next time.